With iBeacon, Apple is embracing Bluetooth low energy beacons to enable proximity-based interactions between devices in the emerging "Internet of Things". Beacons use Bluetooth advertising to broadcast an identifier that can be detected by nearby iOS or Android devices to trigger actions. While iBeacon is proprietary, open standards like AltBeacon and Eddystone aim to foster interoperability between different beacon platforms. Proximity Beacon APIs allow managing beacon data and monitoring beacon health and location changes from the cloud.

1. Nearables
the Eddystone Quest
Follow @thedamfr

2. With iBeacon, Apple is going to dump on NFC and
embrace the internet of things
Hari Gottipati - GIGAOM

6. Unexpected behaviour

7. Going under the hood

8. Bluetooth LE
1

9. Bluetooth is a Data transfer stack
+ Lightweight
+ Compact
+ Easy to embed
+ Connected (sim. to TCP-Sockets)

10. Bluetooth Low Energy is an
additional layer allowing punctual
communication
#Paquets
#HTTP-Style

12. Let speak about GATT

13. GATT
Generic Attribute Profile

14. GATT is a Client-Serveur arch.

15. GATT is a Client-Serveur arch.
Client begin request, get the value of an attribute, write an
attribute

16. GATT is a Client-Serveur arch.
Client begin request, get the value of an attribute, write an
attribute
Server complete request, send the value, edit the values

17. Smartphone Object

18. Smartphone Object
Client Server

19. Attributes
Each attribute is identified with a UUID
There is 3 kind of attributes

20. Characteristics
A characteristic represent a value.
For example, the value measured by a sensor
An accelerometer will expose a Characteristic for each axis
You can :
+ Read a Characteristic
+ write a Characteristic.
+ receive notification or indication from a Characteristic

21. Descriptors
A Characteristic can expose multiple Descriptors.
Descriptors should give additional information about the
Characteristic
For example, the measurement unit.
For a temperature : °C,°F, K.

22. Descriptors
You can :
+ Read a Descriptor
+ Write a Descriptor
+ read all Descriptors of a Characteristic

23. Services
A Service is a collection of attributes
It can contains :
+ Descriptors
+ Characteristics
+ other Services (called Secondary Services)
You can :
+ Discover all primary services
+ Discover all attributes of a service

24. SO WHAT ?

25. SO WHAT ?

26. Discovery
2

27. Client Server

28. Server
An adversting PDU specify an identifier,
a pairing protocol and more

29. Serveur
Advertising Mode is used
when a device wants to let an other
know about its proximity

30. Bluetooth advertising is a method of mobile
advertising that utilises bluetooth technology to deliver
advertisements to mobile devices such as cellular
phones.
Wikipedia - 2008

31. Bluetooth advertising transmitters are set up to detect bluetooth
devices within transmission range. When a device is detected,
the advertising transmitter sends out a message asking the
recipients if they would like to view a promotional text message,
video clip, animation or even a business card. This way of
advertising is very efficient and very cheap at the same time.
One test of such a service at railway stations detected 87,000
phones over a period of two weeks and achieved a response of
15%.[1]This form of advertising has been used to deliver ads for
a car in the London subway system[2] as well as for United
States Navy Reserve recruitment.
Wikipedia - 2008

32. Bluetooth advertising transmitters are set up to detect bluetooth
devices within transmission range. When a device is detected,
the advertising transmitter sends out a message asking the
recipients if they would like to view a promotional text message,
video clip, animation or even a business card. This way of
advertising is very efficient and very cheap at the same time.
One test of such a service at railway stations detected 87,000
phones over a period of two weeks and achieved a response of
15%.[1]This form of advertising has been used to deliver ads for
a car in the London subway system[2] as well as for United
States Navy Reserve recruitment.
Wikipedia - 2008

33. Bluetooth advertising transmitters are set up to detect bluetooth
devices within transmission range. When a device is detected,
the advertising transmitter sends out a message asking the
recipients if they would like to view a promotional text message,
video clip, animation or even a business card. This way of
advertising is very efficient and very cheap at the same time.
One test of such a service at railway stations detected 87,000
phones over a period of two weeks and achieved a response of
15%.[1]This form of advertising has been used to deliver ads for
a car in the London subway system[2] as well as for United
States Navy Reserve recruitment.
Wikipedia - 2008

34. iBeacon

35. An iBeacon Device
is using advertising mode
with a specific frame

36. iBeacon Packet
Exemple
fb0b57a2-8228-44 cd-913a-94a122ba1206 Major 1 Minor 2 twPower 90
UUID
Unique Identifier for a group of beacon, a region
Major
A value identifying a group of beacons
Minor
A value identifying this specific Device
txPower
Signal strength at 1m

37. Understanding Region
A Ble Device like your smartphone
Act as a scanning device for a very short period

38. At the end of the period
If no advertising frame has been received
The scanning device is said out of the Region
Understanding Region

39. Comprendre la notion de
Région
A la fin du Scan, si les paquets d'advertising
d'une beacon n'ont pas été détectés, on peut
dire qu'on est Hors-Région
A la fin du Scan, si les paquets d'advertising
d'une iBeacon ont été détecté, on est dans la
région et l'on peut mesurer la puissance du
signal pour estimer la distance
At the end of the period
If no advertising frame has been received
The scanning devis is said out of the Region
Understanding Region
At the end of the period
If no advertising frame has been received
The scanning device is said out of the Region
If a frame is detected,
the scanning device is said in the Region
And we can measure the signal strength
to range it
Understanding Region

41. What sucks with iBeacon ?

42. Not an open-source specification
What sucks with iBeacon ?

43. Not an open-source specification
Interoperability require reverse engineering
What sucks with iBeacon ?

44. Solution ?
AltBeacon
The Open and
Interoperable Proximity
Beacon Specifica:on

45. Design Goals
• Provide a concise proximity adver3sing message
for interchange of proximity informa3on between
adver3sers and scanners
• Maintain compliance with Bluetooth Specifica3on
Version 4.0 by u3lizing defined adver3sing PDU
and adver3sing data structures
• Encourage adop3on by all interested par3es by
avoiding any obvious implementa3on restric3ons
• Enable the implementa3on of vendor-specific
features, if possible

46. Advertising PDU

47. Content
AD LENGTH
Length of the type and data por6on of the
Manufacturer Specific adver6sing data structure.
AD TYPE
Type represen6ng the Manufacturer Specific
adver6sing data structure.
MFG ID
The beacon device manufacturer's
company iden6fier code
BEACON CODE
The AltBeacon adver6sement
code
BEACON ID
A 20-byte value uniquely
iden6fying the beacon
REFERENCE RSSI
A 1-byte value represen6ng the
average received signal strength at
1m from the adver6ser
MFG RESERVED
Reserved for use by the
manufacturer to implement special
features

48. Eddystone
an open beacon format from Google

49. Design Goals
• Works well with Android and iOS Bluetooth
developer APIs
• StraighOorward implementa3on on a wide
range of exis3ng BLE devices
• Flexible architecture permiRng development
of new frame types
• Fully compliant with the Bluetooth Core
Specifica3on

50. Multiples Frame Types
• Eddystone-UID
• Eddystone-URL
• Eddystone-TLM

51. Eddystone-UID
FRAME TYPE 1 byte
RANGING DATA Calibrated Tx power at 0 m
NAMESPACE 10-byte
INSTANCE 6-byte

52. Eddystone-URL
FRAME TYPE 1 byte
RANGING DATA Calibrated Tx power at 0 m
URL SCHEME 1-byte
ENCODED URL 17-byte

53. URL Scheme Prefix
0 hWp://www.
1 hWps://www.
2 hWp://
3 hWps://

54. Eddystone-URL
Specify an Eddystone-URL Configura3on GATT
Service

55. Eddystone-TLM
FRAME TYPE 1-byte
VERSION 1-byte
BATTERY VOLTAGE 2-byte
BEACON TEMPERATURE 2-byte
ADVERTISING PDU COUNT 5-byte
TIME SINCE POWER-ON OR
REBOOT
4-byte

56. Proximity Beacon API

57. Proximity Beacon API
The Proximity Beacon API is a
cloud service that allows you to
manage data associated with your
BLE beacons using a REST
interface.

58. Proximity Beacon API
Support :
• Eddystone format
• iBeacon format
• AltBeacon format

59. Proximity Beacon API
Place API :
• Place ID
• Loca3on (lat,lng)
• Indoor floor
• Stability

60. Proximity Beacon API
Message API
• NamespacedType
• Data (1024 bytes)

61. Proximity Beacon API
Monitoring
Report Telemetry
Api will determine:
• Predicted ba]ery death.
• Beacons that have moved away
from their registered loca3on.
• Unusually low detec3on rates.

62. Getting Real
Get some Hardware
kontakt.io

63. Getting Real
In House
• Use a beacon to monitor how much 3me you
spend in each rooms
• Use a beacon to indicate proximity with to the
NEST API
• Use a beacon to send an automated text message
when you get home

64. Getting Real
Real life usecase :
• The city bus has a beacon on it
• Your car as a beacon on it
• Your bus stop has a beacon on it
• The restaurant automatically book you a table
on the fly when you get in
• You get notified of a flash promo when walking
in front of an IRL shop

65. jeChercheUnDev.fr
Reach hello@jechercheundev.fr